Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I thank the Members who participated in this debate, including those with whom I do not agree. I particularly thank Deputy McHugh who, at an appropriate time, reminded the House of the intent of the motion. This motion is about pensioners, people on social welfare, workers who are on low income and people who cannot afford the waste charges bills they are getting from either their local authority or the private bin collectors. The motion simply asks the Government to introduce a national waiver scheme on their behalf.

When I proposed this motion last night, I did so without political rancour and with the minimum of political comment in the hope of persuading the Government to introduce a national waiver scheme. I did not seek to blame the Government or to engage in political confrontation. The pensioners, the people on low income, low income workers and the people who are worried about the bill they have received from their local authority or private bin collector deserve better than the type of smart ass speech the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government gave last night.

The Minister, Deputy Roche, might consider it clever to send a political assistant or perhaps a media consultant, at taxpayers' expense, into the archives to discover a speech made 22 years ago by the former Deputy, Mr. Dick Spring, in the hope that it will somehow cause embarrassment to the Labour Party. I can respond with two facts. The Labour Party is proud of Dick Spring's record in public life and there are few who can hold a candle to it. Second, if we wanted to get into the embarrassment game, we would not have to go back 22 years to find something to embarrass Fianna Fáil.

The most serious aspect of the Minister's speech last night is the degree to which it was dishonest and inaccurate. He told the House, for example, that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, on the basis of a motion supported by former Labour Party Minister, Niamh Bhreathnach, opted to support the estimates. He effectively said that the Labour Party's support for the estimates introduced the charging regime in that local authority. The estimates meeting in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council took place on 11 January. The county manager signed the order introducing the waste charges in that local authority on 17 December 2004. This clearly shows that the decision to introduce waste charges and make waiver schemes is made by county managers on the basis of legislation introduced by the previous Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen. Deputy Roche, Deputy Andrews, Deputy Fiona O'Malley and other Deputies who spoke in those sleeveen terms about this issue all voted for it.

Deputy Fiona O'Malley spoke about the need for consistency. She concluded her speech by saying she opposes a national waiver scheme for waste charges. That does not surprise me. Deputy O'Malley and her party do not have a particularly good record of supporting measures, tax breaks or reliefs that affect poor people, as distinct from people at the other end of the social scale whom they support. However, if she wishes to discuss consistency, she could at least have made a contribution that was consistent with her party's policy. The Progressive Democrats election manifesto for the local elections in 2004 states: "We support exemption from waste charges for lower income households, including where bin services are privatised." The next time Deputy O'Malley wishes to lecture me about consistency, she might check her facts first.

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